PowerPoint Blog
Labels: design, powerpoint, shapes
Continuing my discussion on circles (see Circles I and Circles II), this time I look at creating circles in an application outside PowerPoint.
Specifically, my office team was helping me with a review of Artlandia's new SymmetryWorks plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that lets me create organic looking patterns from all shapes. Since we are biased towards circles at this point of time, we decided to create a repeating circular pattern using SymmetryWorks. These patterns were intended as a starting point for PowerPoint backgrounds.
Look at these patterns here -- they are all uploaded to my Flickr account so feel free to click on these thumbnails to see larger previews:
Since this was a fun project, we also made a presentation-full-of-circles with the first pattern -- we uploaded this to SlideBoom so that we could embed it within this post:
So what do I do with circles next? Wait and watch -- or send me your thoughts and feedback...
Categories: design, powerpoint, shapes
Labels: design, photoshop, powerpoint, shapes
I shared a few "circle" thoughts with you in the first post in this series: Design Shapes: The Circle, Part I -- and now it's time to look at some more circles. What could be better than an entire book on circles, and my favorite is a book that's entirely filled with color pictures of any sort of circular pattern that you might have seen!
The book is called Circles and Dots: Communicating with Pattern, and it contains 250 pages worth of circular inspirations for you to feast on.
This is a book that will inspire every individual in a way that's different for each reader. Some people may get ideas about doing crafts and hobbies, others may launch their PowerPoint or Photoshop, and start creating circles -- and others might just start doodling. But each of them will have their own circle of inspiration.
So how does it inspire me? I love to see how color and texture can make so much of a difference between one circle and the other -- how light alters a circular concept in a photograph, and how many circles we have around us all the time that we are not even aware of!
Categories: design, photoshop, powerpoint, shapes
Labels: design, powerpoint, shapes
In this new Design Shape series of posts, I'll look at concepts that are not limited to PowerPoint alone, although you can expect me to relate them to PowerPoint in some way or the other because as you must have guessed it, I am in a circle that revolves around PowerPoint!
Talking about circles, that's also the shape that I talk about in this post. There are many reasons why I like circles:
Of course, there's so much more that I can tell about them -- but for now, let's just leave them here as far their virtues are concerned.
I searched a few visuals depicting circles, and here's what I found on Shutterstock, a well known stock photo site:
Picture Courtesy: Shutterstock
So will the visuals of circular concepts shown above work in PowerPoint? Will you have to adapt or edit them? And would you do those edits in PowerPoint, or another program? That's a lot of questions, even if I am prone to thinking aloud! But that's also a direction for future posts in this series -- watch this space!
Categories: design, powerpoint, shapes
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
In this tutorial series, I showed you how you can play with all the effects available in PowerPoint 2007. This is the last tutorial in this series, and builds upon the previous tutorial that showed you how to apply 3D Rotation to a shape in PowerPoint 2007 (or higher version).
Learn more now...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
We have already covered all effects available in PowerPoint 2007 in this tutorial series except the 3-D, and we remedy that now with this tutorial where I show you how you can add a 3-D Rotation effect to a selected shape in PowerPoint 2007 (or higher version).
Learn more now...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
3-D Options seems like something that should work with the 3-D Rotation effect in PowerPoint 2007, yet it also works with other effects such as Bevel and Presets. In simple terms, 3-D Options let you format the bevel style of a shape with many more options that are available in the conventional Bevel gallery. You can customize options such as contour, contour color, depth, depth color, and materials. This detailed tutorial explains every option within the 3-D Options gamut.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
We have already covered most of the effects available in PowerPoint 2007 in this tutorial series -- and now I show you how you can add a Bevel effect to a selected shape in PowerPoint 2007 (or higher version).
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
We have already explored a few of the effects that PowerPoint 2007 allows to be used on shapes -- and that's the reason they are called Shape Effects. Soft Edges are one of these effects, and we'll look at what you can do with soft edges, which adds an eaten-up, feathered edge to a selected shape. Soft edges work best with larger shapes, especially if you use some of the larger soft edge variations available. PowerPoint provides some ready-to-use soft edges, but there is no option to format soft edges beyond these readymade offerings. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to apply soft edge to a shape.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
In a previous tutorial, I showed you how you can apply a glow effect to a shape in PowerPoint 2007 (or higher version). In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can change the glow color.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
In previous tutorials, I have showed you how you can add preset, shadow, and reflection effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007. Now I move on to the next effect: Glow. Glow adds a hazed color perimeter outside the shape area. PowerPoint provides several glow variations, and in this tutorial I'll show you how to apply glow effects to a shape.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
This tutorial is part of the effects series for PowerPoint 2007. I already showed you how you can apply a shadow effect, and tweak the shadow options. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can quickly add a reflection to a shape.
Note: Although you can add both a shadow and reflection effect to any object in PowerPoint 2007 or higher versions, it's good to use just one of these two effects.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
In a previous tutorial I showed you how to apply the preset effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can apply shadow effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
PowerPoint 2007 offers six effect types that you can apply to most slide objects including shapes. However there may be times when you don't want to go through the trouble of experimenting with these six effects to see if a particular shadow effect style works well with another bevel effect. If that sounds familiar, you will love the Presets option that combines effects that generally work well with each other.
Learn more about these Preset Effects...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
PowerPoint 2007 shape effects can be applied to selected shapes on a slide. There are six shape effects available in PowerPoint 2007: shadow, reflection, glow, soft edges, bevel, and 3-D rotation. In addition you also have presets. I'll explain each of these effects options in individually detailed pages. In this tutorial, I'll explain basics of applying effects.
Learn more here...
Categories: effects, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
We have already covered the fill and line options in PowerPoint 2003 and earlier. While these versions of PowerPoint do not have a dedicated "effects" set like in PowerPoint 2007, they do offer some effects like shadows and 3D. In this series of tutorials, we will first explore shadows.
Learn more about adding shadows in PowerPoint here...
Although PowerPoint provides 20 preset shadow styles, you can still create your own customized shadow, or edit the preset shadow styles using the Shadow Settings toolbar.
Learn more about the Shadow Settings toolbar...
Categories: effects, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: effects, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Although PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions don't have a specific Effects category like PowerPoint 2007, they do have two effects -- these are shadows and 3D. In this tutorial, we'll cover the 3-D styles. Unlike shadows, 3-D styles only work with AutoShapes -- this leaves out pictures but you can always use a rectangle AutoShape with a picture fill to mimic a picture with a 3D style.
Learn more about 3D Styles here...
You can also do more with 3D Styles using the 3D Settings toolbar using options such as tilt, depth, direction, lighting, surface, and color.
Categories: effects, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
I have already showed you the different outline attributes in PowerPoint 2007. In this tutorial, the outline options series will conclude with this article on gradient lines. Gradient lines are a new feature in PowerPoint 2007
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
I have already explained the basics of outlines in PowerPoint 2007 and changing weight and dash types. In this tutorial we'll learn about adding arrowheads to lines. First things first: arrowheads can only be added to lines within open shapes. Shapes, such as rectangles, circles, etc. are closed shapes. Regular line Shapes, such as straight lines, curves, scribbles, etc. are open shapes.
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Weight is the thickness attribute of the outline: you can change the weight all the way from a hairline thin line to a chunky thick line. Dash type is the variation between a line without dashes to ones with longer or smaller dashes, or even alternating small and long dashes.
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
We have already covered fills in PowerPoint 2007 and later versions. In the next part of this series of tutorials, we are going to learn about the outlines in PowerPoint 2007. If you moved up to PowerPoint 2007 from an earlier version, you'll find it interesting to know that Microsoft decided to change some terms -- a line is now an outline, and an AutoShape is a shape. Having said that, many interface areas of PowerPoint 2007 still use the term "line" -- so we'll use both line and outline interchangeably.
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
I previously explained how you can format a line with color, weight, and dash styles in PowerPoint 2003 and previous versions. Now, let me show you how you can add an arrowhead on one or both sides of a line. Arrowheads can only be added to lines within open shapes.
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
In a previous tutorial, I showed you how you can format line attributes (outlines) in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier. In this tutorial you will learn more about the cool patterned lines option.
Learn more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
We have already covered the fill options in PowerPoint. In this series will go through the many ways in which you can format lines. The term "line" in itself is confusing, because all the options explained on this page pertain to "outlines". Microsoft probably realized the confusion prevailing -- and decided to call it an "outline" rather than a "line" since PowerPoint 2007.
Read more here...
Categories: color, lines, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
In previous tutorials, we have covered solid, picture, and gradient fills for shapes in PowerPoint 2007. In this tutorial, we finish this series by showing you how you can use texture fills.
We also cover in detail how you can use the extensive tiling options available in PowerPoint 2007.
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
I already showed you how you can add or change solid color and picture fills for shapes in PowerPoint 2007. In the next part of this series, I show you all the stuff you can do with gradient fills in PowerPoint 2007. To keep things simple, you first learn how to add a gradient fill to a shape in PowerPoint 2007. Then unleash some more gradient power by using the More Gradients option. Finally, become a gradient guru by learning to edit and create your own gradients using the cool Gradient Stops feature.
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint_2007, shapes, tutorials
We start this series on fills for shapes in PowerPoint 2007 by showing you how you can add or edit solid and picture fills. Each tutorial has screen-shots and sample online presentations.
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
In previous tutorials, we have covered solid, gradient, texture and pattern fills for AutoShapes in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier versions. In this tutorial, we finish this series by showing you how you can use picture fills.
Learn more about picture fills in this tutorial for PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions...
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Patterns in PowerPoint are two-color designs comprising patterns like lines, dots, dashes and checks. PowerPoint includes 48 patterns such with names like plaid, weaves shingle and zig zag. We also show you a sample presentation showing pattern fills in PowerPoint.
Learn more about pattern fills in this tutorial for PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions...
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
In previous tutorials of this series, I showed you how you can change or addsolid color and gradient fills to an AutoShape in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier. In this tutorial I'll show you how to add or change a texture fill for an AutoShape in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier. Also included is a sample presentation that includes a texture gallery.
Learn more about texture fills in this tutorial for PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions...
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
In the previous tutorial of this series I showed you how you can change or add a solid color fill to an AutoShape in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier. In this tutorial I'll show you how to add or change gradient fill for an AutoShape in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier.
Learn more here in this tutorial for PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions...
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Labels: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
Whenever you add a new AutoShape to a PowerPoint slide, it is filled with a solid color by default. Most of the time, you may leave that unaltered, but it's easy to change that color or to even add another fill type altogether such as a gradient, pattern, texture, or picture. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can change the default fill color to a color of your choice.
Learn more here in this tutorial for PowerPoint 2003 and earlier versions...
Categories: color, fills, powerpoint, shapes, tutorials
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A lot is at stake -- power, money, reputation, future plans, justice. You need to win this case. Your presentation materials surely will play an important role in helping the judge and jury experience the sights, sounds, and details of the case ... or not. The choice is up to you, says one tech-savvy attorney.
The choice is up to you, says one tech-savvy attorney. It all depends upon whether you are willing to push PowerPoint beyond its normal boundaries to maximize its interactive and persuasive potential. This article by Robert Lane and
Bruce A. Olson
provides a better idea of using PowerPoint in court. 
